Hoarding 101

The first key to packrat success is to do all of your dailies - every day! You’ve got lots of places around Neopia that are just handing out their junk for free, so it’s best if you’re there with arms wide open to catch whatever you can, once a day, every day. The Giant Omelette is a great place to start - you can get an omelette every day and if you’re lucky, you’ll nab lots of different kinds: plain, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, tomato, BBQ, you name - it’s there, just waiting for you to come and scoop onto your plate. The really great thing about omelettes is that you can feed your pet a bite or two and you’re left with 1/3 or 2/3 pieces of omelette, which count as a totally different item towards that goal of 1000 unique items! So if you get a duplicate one day, no worries - your pets will be fed til they’re bloated, and you’ve still got your items stacking up inside that SDB. This trick also works with jellies and pizza, if you want to hop on by Pizzaroo in the Plaza for a slice or prowl user shops for some more.

Tons of places in Neopia drop free swag for whomever is waiting and willing - shoot a cannon at that nasty Kraken for some Anchor Management, and he’ll get so scared he’s sure to leave something behind, then go to the Deserted Shore and hunt around, hopefully without getting too much sand in your shorts. Then drop down under the sea to Maraqua and let your pet cast a line in Underwater Fishing: sure, a lot of the time, you’ll end up with some old boots, but maybe if you’re lucky you can reel in some Titanic Squid - yum! Pop on over to Mystery Island to try your luck in Tombola - if you’re really lucky and don’t stop by on lunch break, you can get several items at once here. The best places to find some SDB junk are the Money and Tree and Rubbish Dump - don’t be greedy, now, but you can take 10 items home every single day from here - and if you’re smart and have got decently fast clicking abilities and just a dab of patience to sift through all the junk, then you can absolutely get 10 unique items there every day.

Sometimes, hoarding has to be an act of courage. Over in Haunted Woods, Bart’s Apple Bobbing and Grave Danger are all a little intimidating for your pets, sure, but there’s some good loot if you’re willing to explore those dark depths. The Snowager, vicious and terrifying at his every waking moment, guards his pile of goodies all day - show him you’re the better hoarder and steal something while he’s asleep. But be quiet, or else you and your pets are in for a nasty very, very cold blast of ice. And if you think you’ve got a really tough pet, take on some Battledome Challengers - different difficulties and different arenas will unlock many more unique items so you can stuff that SDB full! Go see the Healing Springs afterwards so your pets can get back to full health; sometimes the Faerie there will hand you an elixir or a potion, too. While you’re in Faerieland, find that poor Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity - he doesn’t speak much, but there’s been a few times where I’ve turned around to find an item there, just waiting to be taken home and thrown in my SDB. On a similar note, old King Coltzan has a shrine in Lost Desert that’ll do the same. Pay your respects and the generous King usually finds a way to thank you.

If you’re looking for a little challenge - or at least don’t mind a little challenge - during your hoarding, then you can try your hand at Kiko Pop, the Shenkuu Mysterious Negg Cave, and the Lunar Puzzle. These require a little bit of thinking, but can drop some great items for you. Definitely try different difficulties on Kiko Pop, you’ll earn some slightly different prizes that way. If you’re really clever, you may be able to get a laugh and something out of the kitchen from the Grumpy Old King Skarl, or a witty saying Hagan has yet to hear could get you some great reading (after you’ve got your avatar, that is!).

After a couple of weeks, you’ll notice your SDB’s unique item count steadily growing. With some luck, you can get pretty far. And if you’re following this guide, you shouldn’t have had to spend a single neopoint. However, if just doing your dailies isn’t quick enough, never fear - I’ve got more places for you to try, as long as you’ve got the NP. Wheels and scratch cards are everywhere in Neopia - Faerieland, Haunted Woods, Terror Mountain, Lost Desert, Tyrannia, Brightvale: all of them have at least one of the two. You can spin every wheel if you want, a few of them even a couple times a day, and you can get a new scratch card every few hours or so (depending on the kiosk). These aren’t quite as guaranteed to give you cool items, but you can definitely still win some nice stuff this way - just hang on to it, whatever it is, and throw it in that SDB! Some games, like Cheat! or Dice-A-Roo, will give you lots of stuff too - battle cards and food galore will fill your SDB if you play these games.

So maybe after some time, you could get the avatar this way - but heck, that’s a lot of waiting, I know, I know. Well, here’s another couple solutions to put you over that 1000 line: DON’T REMOVE ANYTHING. Anything and everything you get needs to go right into that SDB, no matter what it is. Duplicates don’t matter so much, but make sure this isn’t an item that can be reduced like the omelettes can after a bite, or maybe it’s a toy that can be broken - don’t get rid of a single thing! While you’re hoarding all these items, it’s a good time to start figuring out some other Neo goals you’ve got, like a gallery, or customization ideals for your pets. A typical, complete outfit for one of my pets is at least 5 or more items - that’s 5 or so items that you can either keep in your SDB until you get the avatar, or take back out of your closet and put in the SDB to put you over the edge for your goal. Neopia also has a ton of items that would be great to collect, such as stamps, battledome sets, cards, codestones, avatar item sets, etc. If, instead of putting these things up on display in your gallery or Neodeck, or losing them forever in the stamp album, you waited and held on to them, then you’d be that much closer to your SDB goal. Plus, once you have that shiny new avatar to show off, you can throw everything up for display all at once to REALLY impress your friends. So, pick something now you want to collect, whether it be all Draik items or everything with the word “faerie” in it, your SDB will definitely grow right along with your account worth. Or, instead, you can browse user shops and the neoboards in an attempt to find 1np item or junk sales - there are TONS of items within Neopia, getting 1000 should be a breeze.

After all this, congratulations! You’re a hoarder at last - enjoy the shiny new avatar that proves it.